Sorry, haven't had time yet to put up my Osakapella 5th Anniversary pics. I'll get around to that soon, though.
Just wanted to mention two interesting sites I ran across in my digital wanderings today.
The first one is (tangentially) work-related. I'm on a mission to learn how to implement kalman filters, particle filters, and other probabilistic state estimation tools that are commonly used in robotics. Prof. Dan Simon of Cleveland State University recently wrote a book on state estimation that I'm thinking of buying, so I went to check out his homepage today, and I found an essay he wrote on Christianity and Control Theory .
Okay, that's just incredibly nerdy, which of course I highly respect. I love drawing parallels between seemingly unrelated fields (and I've been reprimanded by a number of ex-girlfriends for doing that excessively). Anyway, after reading it, I didn't think it seemed particularly deep, because the patterns he mentions are EVERYWHERE, not just in religion, but everywhere in life. His discussion of control system optimality is something I would immediately apply to singing and playing go, for example. However, I'm glad he wrote it. I think it's always good to see things in a new light and to look at analogies between different systems.
I also like his description of why he is a Christian . I fully agree with all the reasons he rejects for being Christian. I think those are crap reasons too... for example, countless evangelical Christians have tried to convince me that avoidance of Hell is a good reason to be Christian. To me, that seems to me like such a weaselly, hypocritical reason to believe in a religion.
After systematically rejecting several reasons to be Christian, he states, "I am a Christian simply because I believe that Christianity is true." Again, I have to wholeheartedly agree with him. In fact, the exact reason I don't believe in Christianity is because in my heart, I simply believe that it's not true. I don't have a complex logical set of arguments or anything, it just comes down to gut intuition and what seems right or wrong to you.
After N years of my life of being bombarded by inane arguments by evangelical Christians, where N is approximately equal to (L - J), L being the number of years I've been alive and J being the number of years I've been in Japan, it's a relief to finally find somebody who has come to the same conclusion I have on religion, albeit from the opposite perspective.
It's also a good feeling, of sorts, to be in absolute agreement with somebody you thoroughly disagree with. I do think it's always important to keep questioning and reflecting on things, challenging your beliefs so they don't get too rigid and set in their ways. To quote Ani DiFranco, "Buildings and bridges were made to bend in the wind / To withstand the world, that's what it takes / All that steel and stone is no match for the air, my friend / What doesn't bend, breaks".
It's kind of like living in Japan. If you try to live your life in exactly the same way you lived at home, things are going to be rough for you. A lot of those little comforts of home just don't exist here, or they're just not practical. You have to bend in the wind and learn to live like the Japanese do. It's hard to say goodbye, though, to Mexican food, pita bread, juice concentrate, deodorant, baking soda, T-shirts after September 1st, insulated houses... the list goes on and on.
And today the list went on one item further, as I realized that it appears to be impossible to procure Jell-O here. I'm having a little picnic tomorrow with like 15 friends, and I thought it would be cool to make Jell-O shots. (Ok, so I'm not thinking of making them so much FOR the picnic tomorrow as to merely use the picnic tomorrow as a trial run so I can make them correctly for my birthday. ;)
So I scoured the supermarkets and found only a few packs of unflavored gelatin. I guess you're supposed to add juice or something - the dude in the supermarket just goggled at me bug-eyed when I asked if they had "flavored" gelatin. So I looked around on the internet for Jell-O shot recipes, and they pretty much all use Jell-O. Go figure, right? Anyway, I ran across this fascinating page on The Ultimate Jell-O Shot, which presents an extraordinarily thorough scientific analysis of the Jell-O shot, based on extensive experimentation with varying amounts of alcohol, water, sugarless vs. regular Jell-O, etc. It's actually quite well-presented and interesting, with good photos. If you like that page, be sure to check out their other page, Lighting a Jell-O Shot on Fire. That one doesn't look very tasty, but they really push the physical limits of the Jell-O shot, transforming it into unrecognizable phases of matter.
Anyway, sorry no photos again. I've been on the edge of catching a cold lately, so I need to get some sleep. Just wanted to share those links with you.
By the way, I self-nominate this post for "most contrived and convoluted segue". :)
3 comments:
Whoa, it's not yet Saturday here. I just wanted to weigh in on your philosophical musings. I am currently in the state of agnosticism (from the point of view of "I believe"/"I do not believe"). I just haven't decided. But my husband is a Catholic and I've been attending with him since we started dating. Right away, I discovered that the church wasn't all about what the news media would let you believe - it's more liberal and down to earth (at least in northern CA) and flexible and open. Secondly, I found that due to spending an hour a week reflecting on love, interpreted into various messages: the golden rule, charity, and forgiving yourself for your own weakness, my own behaviour has changed for the better. So in that sense, I feel that I benefit from attending church in a personal, spiritual way, even though it hasn't really helped me believe in the works of Jesus. Does feeling it is right to help others, be nice to others, and do good works mean I'm a Christian? No. But I feel well-aligned with the church and its broad message of love.
I have been meaning to sit down and read Mere Christianity, which I have been told was C.S. Lewis's study on setting out to prove God didn't exist, and ending convincing himself that he does.
Yeah, the community aspect of church is certainly of value. I feel like the concept of community has been degrading in our world over the past several decades.
I also agree that reflection and spirituality are quite important, and they certainly help you to become a better person. Setting aside time for that and having guiding texts and sermons to help you think about those things is probably good too.
I only take exception to things like having to literally believe the mythology behind the religion, and although I do appreciate many of the broad messages of love and forgiveness, there are a few messages in Christianity that I don't agree with. Going into what those are would be enough text for a whole blog post, though...
It's actually made of some pretty nasty stuff, like ground-up bones and cartilage or something. I must say, given those ingredients I would never in my lifetime have come up with the concept for Jell-O.
I bet you could actually make a lot of $$$ if you came up with a vegetarian alternative to gelatin...
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